The corpus record — Latin

terminus

terminus · m

a boundary-line

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Praefatio 1 · 42.74/10k
Carmen Saeculare 1 · 32.36/10k
De Otio 3 · 15.3/10k
Ludus Septem Sapientum 2 · 15.16/10k
Adversus Judaeos Liber 9 · 8.02/10k
De Vita Iulii Agricolae 5 · 7.42/10k
Quomodo Substantiae in Eo Quod Sint Bonae Sint Cum Non Sint Substantialia Bona 1 · 7.28/10k
Technopaegnion 1 · 6.73/10k
Pro C. Rabirio Perduellionis Reo Ad Quirites 2 · 5.64/10k
De Fuga in Persecutione 3 · 5.64/10k
Ausonii Burdigalensis Vasatis Gratiarum Actio Ad Grati Angratianum Imperatorem Pro Consulatu 2 · 4.83/10k
Timaeus 2 · 4.74/10k

Densest 12 of 96 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. termĭnus — Lewis & Short

termĭnus, i, m. (collat. form termo, ōnis, Enn. ap. termen, ĭnis, n., acc. to

Fest. p. 363 Müll., or Ann. v. 470 and 471 Vahl.; and Varr. L. L. 5, § 21 Müll.; so,

I (BTERMINA DVO STANT, Inscr. Orell. 3121) [Sanscr. root tar-, overcome; tīrain, shore, edge; Gr. te/rma, goal; te/rmwn, border; cf. trans, in-trare], a boundary-line, boundary, bound, limit (syn.: finis, limes, meta).

I Lit., of local boundaries: contentio de terminis, Cic. Ac. 2, 43, 132: agrorum, Plin. 18, 2, 2, § 8; Hor. C. 2, 18, 24: templi, Liv. 45, 5, 7: urbis, Tac. A. 12, 23; 12, 24 fin.: possessionum, Cic. Mil. 27, 74: vicinitatis, id. Rab. Perd. 3, 8: Alexandria, in terminis Africae et Aegypti condita, Just. 21, 6, 3.—Comically, = membrum virile, Pompon. ap. Non. 146, 24 (Com. Fragm. v. 126 Rib.).— Hence,

B Personified: Termĭnus, the deity presiding over boundaries, Ov. F. 2, 639 sq.; Varr. L. L. 5, 10, 22; Liv. 1, 55, 3; 5, 54, 7; Hor. C. S. 27; Lact. 1, 20, 38; Fest. p. 368; Serv. ad Verg. A. 9, 448. —

II Transf., in gen., a bound, limit, end, term: constituendi sunt, qui sint in amicitiā fines, ut quasi termini diligendi, Cic. Lael. 16, 56; cf.: certos mihi fines terminosque constituam, id. Quint. 10, 35: oratoris facultatem non illius artis terminis, sed ingeni sui finibus describere, id. de Or. 1, 49, 214: contentionum, id. Fam. 6, 22, 2: nullis terminis circumscribere aut definire jus suum, id. de Or. 1, 16, 70: Pompeius, cujus res gestae atque virtutes isdem quibus solis cursus regionibus ac terminis continentur, id. Cat. 4, 10, 21: omnium aetatum certus est terminus, senectutis autem nullus est certus terminus, id. Sen. 20, 72: vitae, id. Rab. Perd. 10, 29: pangere terminos, id. Leg. 1, 21, 56: termini egestatis, Plaut. As. 1, 2, 13: hos terminos dignitati statuo, Plin. Ep. 6, 29, 3.

2. terminus — Walde–Hofmann

terminus, -3 m. „Grenzstein, Markstein, Grenze, Grenzgott (seit Cato); Ende, Ziel“ (seit Naev., Plaut., Cato, rom. neben “termine, *termite; termen, -inis n. Varro ling. 5, 21, Inschr., vgl. termina duö Sent. Minuc. CIL. I? 584,8), termo, -ónis m. ,Grenzstein* (seit Enn., vgl. Fest. p. 363 termónem Ennius Graecä cónsustüdine dixit, quam nüs nunc ierminum), termino, -äre ,begrenze* (seit Cic., terminandus seit Eccl), … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. terminus, p. 1579]

In the wild

terminis Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 36.1.p1
Termine Ovid, Fasti 2.658
terminos Tacitus, Historiae 4.53
terminus Claudian, In Eutropium 2.20.369
terminos Curtius Rufus, Historiae Alexandri Magni 4.8.3
terminosque Cicero, Pro P. Quinctio 35

6 of 302 attestations shown.

Where it came from

Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. terminus (scan p. 710; entry #11787).
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. terminus (scan pp. 1579-1580; entry #2977). Root candidates: *ter-, *zer-, *ster-.

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.